Mass Effect 2 Flotilla Confliction
by Frostbrandt
Summary: Shepard and Tali just came back from the Collector base to tell the tale but their struggles aren't over. Cerberus isn't too happy with what went down but luckily this inter-species couple is more than capable of putting them in their place
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

_This is really just explaining what happened at the end of ME2 so in case you want to skip it Shepard destroys the Collector base then tells the Illusive Man to go f**k himself. Follows off Tali's romance plot. Enjoy!_

Shepard's eye lids burst open gazing at the ceiling of a brightly illuminated room. Putting up with a migraine he panned his eyes across the green walls of the room trying to remember what happened before he fell asleep until his eyes met Chakwas's, who was sitting on her chair.

"Shepard," Chakwas stated in her professional tone while getting off her chair to approach him, "you're awake at last, how are you feeling?"

"Like crap," Shepard groaned bluntly resting his head in his hand, "what the hell happened to me?"

"You threw out too much biotic power in the collector base and exhausted yourself. I even had to open up the base of your skull to cool your implant down, it almost overheated."

"Explains the migraine, how's the team?"

"They're fine, although Tali seems to be sick, interestingly. You wouldn't know something about that would you?" Shepard's eyes widened with shock and paused for a moment, feeling guilty. Did he do this to him?

"She wasn't shot by a Collector?" Shepard asked stuttering on each word.

"No, and she will be fine. In any case it isn't something to be concerned about, I'm just wondering how she caught a bug is all, anyway the Illusive Man wants to speak with you once you've-" Shepard just jumped out of his bed to put on the formal clothing Kasumi got him for the heist and walked towards the medical bay door.

"Fully recovered," Chakwas finished with surprise in her face.

"Thank you for everything Doc, I'll talk to him now."

"Wait two weeks before you use the biotics or you might end up back here!" Chakwas called back in vain.

Shepard walked out and into the elevator, took it up to the CIC and into the comm room. The door had been blown off when the Normandy crashed on the Collector base and some debris blocked the entrance which Shepard had to lift out of the way to get in. When Shepard stepped into the room his entire body was scanned by a yellow light and a hologram of the Illusive Man popped up with him smoking and drinking as usual.

"Shepard, you're making a habit of costing me more time and money than your worth," TIM called out furiously.

"Don't boss me around Illusive Man," Shepard called back "I did what I had to do, for my crew and for the galaxy, humanity included."

"Acquiring technology is what strengthens humans, not destroying it. Saving that base would've secured human dominance in the galaxy, against the reapers and beyond, and you blew it up Shepard. I should've realized you'd be too idealistic and choke on the hard decisions." TIM argued.

"Human dominance? Or just Cerberus? Shepard asked grimly. This question made TIM get up off his chair.

"Strength for Cerberus is strength for every human. Cerberus IS humanity," TIM replied proudly.

"I call your bullshit, I saw what you did to David Archer, you're a terrorist who inflicts pain on every species, even your own. I wouldn't give that amount of power to anyone, not the Alliance, not the Council, and definitely not you. You'd abuse its power and try to hurt every alien species out there. Humanity isn't any more important than any other species out there and I hope you realize that." Shepard could tell by the expression on the Illusive Man's face that he was getting very cross with him, as his frown and his eye-to-eye stare resembled that of the pope staring into the eyes of the Anti-Christ.

"You're a traitor to your own kind Shepard!" TIM shouted at him. He had just expressed emotion that Shepard never expected to see from him but he wasn't thrown off. Instead he started giving off a blue biotic aura and walked closer to TIM hologram appearing to be angrier than before.

"I've had enough of your bitching Mr. Illusive. I'm warning you now, don't get in my way or after I'm through with the reapers you're next," Shepard threatened as he blasted the hologram projector with his biotics and walked off with a dreadnought sized grin on his face.


	2. Chapter 1

**_Chapter 1_**

"Way to tell the boss 'you can't fire me I quit!' commander" Joker complimented amusingly over the ship's radio as Shepard headed towards the engineering deck.

"That was the idea Joker," Shepard replied, "I owe you a drink for getting us out of that mess alive."

"I'll hold you to that, Joker out." Shepard continued on his intended path to find Gabby getting annoyed by Ken's perverted remarks as usual, something about asari this time, and walked straight towards Tali who was actually already facing him as if he was expected.

"Tali," Shepard began, but afterwards words just failed to roll out of his tongue as if Kasumi had stolen them all while he wasn't looking.

"Just so you know, I have a fever, I've got a nasty cough and my sinuses are filled with something I can't even describe," Tali complained before Shepard could say anything.

"Tali, I'm so sorry," Shepard replied sadly with a deep guilt polluting his eyes, "I never meant to hurt you."

"You didn't, it was totally worth it," Tali replied cheerfully giving off the purr he loved to hear so much.

"Oh well ah…" before he could say anything Tali wrapped her arms around his shoulders and stared into his eyes. All Shepard could do was stare back and hold her by the hips.

"Shepard, I almost lost you," Tali whispered to his ears trying to hold back tears. This is not how Shepard wanted to make her feel and he mentally slit his own throat for making Tali cry, however lightly she was crying.

"I'm not going anywhere any time soon Tali, especially not when I have an entire crew that includes a quarian beauty to fight for," Shepard whispered back tenderly. Gabby and Ken were gazing in their direction now, their eyes completely fixated on the couple in wonder and confusion but Shepard didn't, or couldn't give a damn. He was with Tali right now dedicating himself to her which was all he cared about right now. Tali looked back up into Shepard's blue eyes and brushed her hand across the side of his head taking in the texture of his buzz cut.

"Flatterer," she chuckled bluntly. There wasn't a sound in the galaxy Shepard preferred to her laugh and it always made his heart skip a beat.

"Come up to my cabin for a drink?" Shepard asked puppy-eyed. Tali slowly and gently came out of his embrace with her head tilted to her left.

"Love too, lead the way," Tali replied coughing in between. The two of them held hands and took the elevator to Shepard's cabin where he opened a bottle of pre-sterilized turian brandy for her while he opened some red wine imported from Earth. Once the two of them got comfy on the coach their drinks were left on the table and they caved into each other's arms as if they hadn't seen each other in thousands of asari lifespans and had just reunited all of a sudden.

"So Shepard, what was the first thing that came to your mind when you saw that reaper?" Tali asked casually. Shepard instantly thought of the size of the human reaper. It was as big as a small cruiser even at the embryo stage of development.

"Keelah that's massive," Shepard replied playfully.

"Seriously? You spoke keelish in your head?" Tali asked surprised while struggling to hold back a cough.

"Well I have been spending a lot of time with quarians recently. What did you think?"

"You better stay away from Shepard," Tali acted out enthusiastically while sipping her brandy. It came out so sweetly, so delicately that Shepard couldn't help but smile back and caress the side of her mask that covered the cheek.

"You're a sweetheart Tali." She took one final mouthful from her brandy and knelt right on top of his lap with her face no more than a few inches from his.

"I'm yours Shepard," Tali purred out as she reached for the locks on her visor with a free hand but Shepard instantly grabbed her wrist out her reflex.

"Wait, don't you want to wait till you get better and once we get decontamination unit in the room?"

"Well no display of affection but I think I can let you look at my face without a helmet in the way."

"Only if you're sure Tali." Shepard was more concerned for her health than being able to see Tali's face again and that made her really happy inside. She knew that Shepard would always place her wellbeing above his own desires, a kindness she never expected from aliens when she first left the fleet for her pilgrimage. She finally nodded her head and undid one lock. Then her omni-tool started beeping with an incoming message which made them both let out a big sigh each and paused for a few long seconds that drifted by like a snail as Tali's omni-tool continued to beep disturbingly loud.

"You should probably get that you know," Shepard reluctantly sighed.

"Alright, just a moment," Tali quietly let out while she got off him to check the incoming message. She was shocked to find that it had come from Raan of all people.

"Oh crap," Shepard let with a hint of doom in his voice and biotically slid under his bed as quickly as he could while Tali answered the message.

"Auntie Raan?" Tali asked. She didn't know why she was so surprised but she just had to confirm it. She thought she would be asleep by now.

"Tali, sorry to interrupt whatever you were doing but you need to come back to the fleet as soon as you can it's urgent," she informed desperately.

"Can't you be a little more specific Aunt?" Tali asked making no secret that she was annoyed with such a seemingly pointless interruption.

"I can't discuss more on an open and unsecured channel but I promise if you come back to the Rayya everything will explained." Raan's voice was becoming more and more desperate which made Tali take her aunt a lot more seriously.

"Alright," Tali finally agreed before letting out a huge cough that would make most people think she was trying to vomit out something nasty, "as soon as I can."

"Are you ok Tali?" Raan asked concerned.

"I'm fine, just wait for me."

"Thank you dear, I promise you aren't wasting time." With that last word Raan hung up and Tali deactivated her omni-tool while Shepard crawled out from underneath his bed. He stood up with his eye brows slanted, frowning and wide eyed which Tali took to mean that he was disappointed and concerned at the same time.

"I'll get Joker to send us back to the fleet now but they better not be accusing you of treason again," Shepard declared arms folded.

"I doubt it, she would have said so otherwise but thank you Shepard, for everything," Tali said softly.


	3. Chapter 2

**_Chapter 2_**

"After drifts amongst open stars, through skies amidst open shores, I will return from where I came," Tali recited as the Normandy closed in to the Flotilla to make port on the Rayya. Once the former Cerberus frigate docked Shepard came out into the Rayya wearing his blood dragon armour with Tali dragging Kasumi along close behind him.

"Remind me Tali, why did I have to come along again?" Kasumi asked compliantly.

"It'll just be easier if you're here with me Kasumi. You give me confidence when dealing with people and after what happened with my father I need you more than ever," Tali replied innocently.

"You should probably be directing this to Shep. Besides, aren't you worried about me stealing something from your home?" Kasumi asked trying to sound as malicious as she possibly could.

"If you were going to you'd be smart enough to not say so to avoid suspicion," Tali rebutted wittedly.

"Oh I've taught you well my young shinobi," Kasumi giggled.

The trio made their way through the Rayya until they arrived in the main plaza where they saw Raan talking to the other Admirals who she then excused herself from when she saw Tali and her comrades arrive.

"Tali," Raan began relieved, "I'm glad you've come so quickly.

"We came by as quickly as soon as Tali got the message. What's going on?" Shepard asked suspicious. He still hadn't forgotten how the fleet screwed Tali over the way they did when she was put on trial.

"Yes Shepard, and I'm glad you're here. It is your organization giving the fleet grief right now. What Tali is doing with you is beyond me," Raan exclaimed angrily.

"Now wait a minute you bosh-"

"Please," Tali requested while stepping in between them to try to calm them down, "Now's not the time for fighting. Besides Aunt," Tali coughed several times and Shepard patted her back a few times before she was able to talk again, "we've left Cerberus now that the Collectors are gone."

"I see, forgive me Shepard," Raan apologized.

"We all get a little on edge Admiral. Just tell us what Cerberus is doing." Tali knew not many other people would tolerate Raan's outburst like that. That was one thing about Shepard Tali was always fascinated about: Shepard always seemed to understand people in ways no one else did.

"Of course. Cerberus has been infiltrating the Fleet somehow. They keep stealing our element zero."

"What?!" Tali asked surprised. She was stunned by how Cerberus was just able to steal the fleet's eazoo so easily .

"This is bad. The Migrant Fleet survives on its eazoo," Kasumi stated bluntly.

"Exactly. Cerberus is clever but they aren't perfect. Some of our marines were able follow one of the ships they use and they tracked it down to Elohi, in the Micah system. If you could go in, kill any Cerberus forces there and recover what element zero you can the fleet would be very grateful," Raan explained.

"Shepard please," Tali pleaded, "this is my home." Shepard stared into her visor so intensely that all time around him seemed to just pause altogether. He was Commander Shepard, former gang leader, the Hero of Elysium, N7 Alliance Adept, the First Human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel and had just recently saved humanity by destroying the Collectors. He knew no fear and no weakness… except for one cute Quarian who was able to melt his heart just by acting sweetly.

"Any chance we get to hurt Cerberus is a good chance to do so if they're going to be hurting us when the reapers come," Shepard declared.

"How did I know you would agree to this Shep?" Kasumi asked humorously, sarcastically and rhetorically.

"Thank you Shepard," Tali thanked sincerely despite her cough getting in the way, "I knew you could be trusted." Shepard noticed Tali's purr near the end of her sentence which made his heart skip a beat.

"You have my thanks Commander," Raan thanked gratefully, "but before you go, there is someone I would like to send with you. I believe you have met him before." Shepard, Tali and Kasumi turned their head to find a male quarian covered in a red enviro-suit approach the group with an avenger assault rifle and a rocket launcher strapped to his back. The three of them knew who it was. It was Kal'Reegar.

"Good to see you again Commander. You too Ma'am."


	4. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

"Alright guys, this is simple," Shepard informed on the shuttle standing up while Tali and Reegar sat on the seats opposite him, "we get in, get information on Cerberus and get out while hopping we don't run into any pirates. Questions?"

"Any idea what Cerberus is up to?" Reegar asked.

"No idea but I plan to find out. On a side note, it's good working with you again Reegar," Shepard replied optimistically.

"Same here Kal, but are you sure you should be back up fighting so soon?" Tali asked concerned.

"What do you mean by 'so soon' Ma'am, it's been almost a month since I last saw some combat?" Reegar asked confused while checking out his avenger assault rifle.

"We're here, get ready," Shepard ordered as he put on his helmet, completing his blood dragon set of armour. The shuttle landed and the door slid open quickly as usual but did not fully land, rather it hovered mere inches above the ground which made the team hop out rather than walk out. The team all landed on the ground feet first with a small thud each and knelt down on one leg quickly in a triangle formation facing away from each other observing the area around them with their weapons drawn and pointed out in front of them. Tali brought up her omni-tool and opened up a map of the area. The terrain wasn't treacherous but it wasn't forgiving either for it was extremely rocky, with hills and mounds everywhere but no real cover to hide behind should a gun fight with Cerberus patrols break out but there was no time to worry about this. The shuttle could only land the team three kilometers away from the base to avoid detection and if they were to get rid of the local Cerberus forces quickly they had to move fast. After showing Shepard and Reegar the geographical information she turned her omni-tool back off and held her eviscerator shotgun in both her hands once again. The team maneuvered through the terrain quickly and nimbly, walking through where it was flat, climbing over what wasn't and jumping between the gaps of hills and mounds as if religiously keeping to a time limit. Were there any outside observers they would be in awe at the way the danced and glided across the land as if they were deities who created it and modified it at will. After a surprisingly short amount of time the trio had made it up on top of a short mountain, a sniper's perch only 100 meters from the base.

"What are they doing down there?" Tali asked curiously, though considering Cerberus was willing to mutate their own kind into monsters she hoped in her gut that she wouldn't regret asking.

"Let's take a peek," Reegar replied as he took out a pair of binoculars. With both hands he rested the lenses on his eyes, or rather his visor, and gazed through the glass, staring across the distance and catching the sight of the base after much swaying about with them. He adjusted the zoom a little more by tuning it from the outside with his left quarian equivalent of an index finger and saw the enemy's territory more visibly. The base itself was a medium sized flat sphere shaped hideout made of construction steel decorated in a typical Cerberus fashion with security cameras sticking out from the edges, most likely with thermal vision, and a few guards wearing armour similar to Shepard's N7 gear that he was given when he first came back to life albeit flying Cerberus colours. The land that the hideout was built on must've been flattened manually by Cerberus laborers for there were still heaps of giant rocks and mounds only a ten second sprint away.

"What do you see Reegar?" Shepard asked curiously while gazing into the distance towards the enemy hideout.

"A small base of operations, a few guards, I count 10 so far, and dozens of chest high metal walls attached together in a circle formation around the base, probably for some sturdy cover just in case they ever get invaded like what we're about to do, nothing the Conqueror of the Collectors can't handle," Reegar replied confidently.

"Alright, we'll move in closer and all group up at one spot, try to get the enemy to cluster together. If we can do that I have a plan," Shepard declared with no tremble or weakness in his voice.

"Seems like a hell of a risk Commander, you sure," Reegar asked confused.

"Shepard's a biotic Kal, he'll have something up his sleeve," Tali answered optimistically.

"Right, I saw when you took down the Colossus on Haestrom. Alright let's go blow these bastards to hell."

"Oh we will rip them to shreds Reegar don't worry. Move out team," Shepard ordered. The team descended down the mound with an angelic grace and crouch jogged closer and closer towards the east side of the base dancing from cover to cover to not be spotted by the troops and keeping out of the sight of the cameras with ease. In the end they made it to a large rock which Shepard and Reegar accommodated, and a smaller rock next to it which Tali hid behind. Shepard examined the patrols. He noticed that the soldiers regularly went around the base as if in some sort of formation, but this wasn't very useful information minus the fact he did confirm there were in fact 10 foot soldiers to get rid of. He held his Vindicator tightly, steadying his grip with the rifle and took a deep breath glowing slightly. Just another routine mission right?


	5. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

"Alright, let's do this!" Shepard shouted in an effort to attract the attention of every Cerberus soldier in the area, "Tali, send in Chiktikka!" Tali popped out of cover for a short while and pointed her omni-tool in between two soldiers that had been within their line of sight at the time, and as her arm was stretched straight ahead of herself her invaluable signature combat drone was conjured into existence, instantly shocking one of the soldiers. The other Cerberus operatives rushed to the sight of the chaos to find a mere drone harassing two soldiers and quickly tried to dismantle it in a panic.

"That's why you get real soldiers for security not guys who think their pros because they know how to tell the difference between the barrel and grip of a gun," Reegar laughed sprayed bullets from his avenger into the general direction of the Cerberus soldiers. Some of the bullets had destroyed some of the enemy's shields and wounded them in various parts of their bodies and some had hit Chiktikka which made her explode from the damage, killing two of the operatives and stunning five. Shepard took advantage of the chaos that had been sown into the enemy ranks by casting a mass effect field into the heart of the stunned soldiers and slowly they floated off the ground coated in blue biotic energy and drifted slowly towards Tali who then blasted three of the soldiers, ejected a thermal clip, then blasted the other two dead with no effort using her eviscerator. They were left as nothing but mangled and butchered corpses at her feet, ripped apart from biotics and shotgun blasts alike. The last three had escaped the unfortunate ends of their comrades and attempted to flank the trio but Shepard took notice and chucked a singularity their way, stunning them which let Reegar gun them down with his avenger with one thermal clip.

"Nice work guys, let's get inside and pay Cerberus a visit," Shepard suggested cheerfully still holding on to his Vindicator. The three of them walked to the north side of the base at normal pace, where the entrance was.

"I'll go in first," Reegar declared as he jumped to the vanguard of the team's formation but the door held him back. When he looked properly he saw that the door's access symbol was orange and he let out a big sigh.

"I'll take care of it," Tali informed as she stepped up and scanned the lock with her omni-tool and fiddled around with various button combinations and arm gestures, "let's see, this is going to take a while," Tali coughed profusely before she was able to resume her work, "actually that was easy, it's done." Tali declared proudly as she hacked the lock and opened the door which led into a decontamination and air chamber where the door behind them closed and their suits were sprayed with weak cryogenic substances to keep them clean. The team wasn't interested in being cleaned though which Shepard made a point of as he biotically ripped apart the air-tight door right in front of the team which also blew back a small fire team of five that had been knelt down and waiting for them. The soldiers tried to get back up again to expend their thermal clips from their avengers on Shepard and his squad but the three of them combined shot them down first with their own weapons. Shepard examined the area once his enemies were dead and saw that what they had entered was just one massive round hallway with Cerberus adorned walls and lab rooms every few paces apart from each other which would be the only cover he and his team would have should they encounter more soldiers in the hallway and even then these makeshift bunkers might have enemies inside.

"Be careful team," Shepard warned, "the fight's not over yet." One by one the trio breeched each room, sometimes with more fire teams waiting to be slaughtered by Shepard's relentless determination to get the job done, sometimes they came across anywhere between one and four scientists who tried to fight back but they were cut down even more easily than the soldiers, but most of the time it was just science equipment and odd research that none of the team cared about. It wasn't until they came across the hideout's last room, which was twice as large as the other rooms that had been breached that something promising and truly awe-shattering was discovered by this relentless team of fighters.

"Ok guys, last room, let's hope this one here is promising," Shepard spoke in an optimistic tone hoping to increase his team's morale for one final time before the mission was finished. His Quarian squad mates nodded their heads simultaneously and Shepard tapped the door to open it. Inside he found a sight so surprising and confusing that the entire galaxy just shut out. The interior of the room was blank and his team now seemed non-existent. What Shepard gazed at that blew his mind back was the presence of several husks.

"Husks!" he thought, "why are there husks here?!" When the husks noticed him and his Quarian comrades the team ran back, even Shepard who had only needed the moaning sound of a husk to wake him up from his waking dream. The team spent thermal clip after thermal clip trying to keeping the husks at bay but there were so many that some grabbed onto Shepard and his team every few seconds. Shepard tried and tried and after calming down enough to get his concentration back he used a large reave field that incapacitated a large number of the husks at once while the ones behind them were stuck at the back unable to get through their now useless horde. Tali blew each and every husk she could back with her eviscerator while Reegar gunned downed hordes at a time with his avenger. 40 shots, eject, repeat. Shepard was the one who made it possible however, as he would either incapacitate groups with an area reave, make them float about with a singularity or toss them about like a child's action figure with pull fields. It took an entire 10 minutes to get rid of such a massive horde and by then they had collapsed on the ground from exhaustion, Shepard especially who was suffering from another headache from making so many biotic fields so soon after having an emergency repair done to his L5-X implant after the Collector base. Now the ground was littered with husk corpses everywhere, over the floors and some had even managed to be somewhat perched onto the walls. The sight of the number of disabled husks was overwhelming and morale destroying.

"What the… what were those things?" Reegar asked shocked. Shepard didn't blame Reegar for being so jumpy right now, he had been killing husks since Eden Prime and they still creped him out from time to time.

"Those were husks," Shepard replied, "they're human corpses modified by the reapers to act as shock troops.

"That is nasty, no wonder you want them taken down," Reegar replied hastily but trying to remain professional.

"Wait, why does Cerberus have husks in their base like this?" Tali asked confused, "it doesn't make sense."

"We have to check that room. C'mon," Shepard ordered. The trio rushed back into the large room where the husks had come from once they had caught their breaths while trying not to trip over the husks themselves and searched around the glass desks and lab equipment of the room the size of three apartment rooms combined. There were things worth seeing in this room, secrets to find unlike the others as the team would soon discover.

"Guys, look at this," Tali called to her team as she took a small hand-sized object out of a draw she was looking through. Shepard and Reegar gathered around her to see a bronze object resembling a straight river without any curves or turns with the Cerberus symbol right in the centre.

"What is that?" Reegar asked confused.

"Miranda will know," Shepard informed, "we'll take it back to her, could have some meaning to Cerberus."

"Hey look, eezo," Reegar pointed to a large storage area in the corner of the room filled with element zero presumably belonging to the fleet. There was way too much for the three of them to carry by themselves without mechanical aid.

"Joker, send the shuttle over, we have a large shipment of eezo to take back to the Migrant Fleet," Shepard ordered over his omni-tool.

"Aye aye Commander," Joker replied from onboard the Normandy as he sent the shuttle back just outside the entrance to the Cerberus hideout. Shepard looked around and saw twenty dead bodies placed in black zip-up body bags all lined up neatly on the ground, 10 side by side and another 10 on the ground above them also aligned side by side. Reegar picked up the datapad close to the bodies and the information he found disgusted him.

"I can't believe people would actually band together into an entire faction just to do this to their own kind," Reegar declared sickened.

"What is it?" Shepard asked grimly.

"Take a look," Reegar replied as he handed the Commander the data pad. The datapad held information regarding the biotic abilities of the now dead humans and all the brutal experiments that the test subjects had gone through which ultimately killed them. Shepard, outraged by Cerberus once again, biotically lifted the pad up above him and threw it as hard as he could into a wall which shattered it into a million tiny pieces that no one was ever going to bother to clean up, mainly for the safety of their fingers.

"Sick bastards, they were trying to make another subject zero," Shepard exclaimed disgusted.

"Hey, what is that?" Tali asked in suspiciously as she looked at a skeleton in a huge transparent capsule shrouded in a blue kinetic barrier. The other two came closer to the object. That wasn't a natural skeleton, it didn't look human for one and the trio could tell it was made of element zero.

"What the, EDI, check this out," Shepard called as he stood inches away from the kinetic barrier and waved his omni-tool over the skeleton for readings to give to the Normanday's artificial intelligence.

"Interesting, a skeleton made of element zero. I also detect information caches of dead biotics in the electronics near you. It is possible that Cerberus was conducting tests to improve the power of human biotics," EDI theorized to him and his team.

"By what exactly, replacing the skeleton with a new one made of eezo?" Shepard asked curiously.

"It is highly doubtful, but replacing a select number of bones may be possible. Regardless, there is something you should know Shepard. The skeleton, it has traces of Prothean DNA."

"Wait, Prothean, you sure your VI is correct Commander?" Reegar asked. Shepard was just about to correct him that EDI is actually a fully self aware AI, but given he is a Quarian and almost got killed by Geth not too long ago he decided it was best to leave him uncorrected.

"It has to be," Tali replied in Shepard's steed, "EDI doesn't make false readings." Shepard took pictures of the skeleton and the rest of the room with his omni-tool very quickly as he tried to think of more questions to ask EDI.

"Are the protheans known for having eezo bones EDI?"Shepard asked at last.

"No Shepard, which is why it is unusual. It is possible however given how advanced the Protheans were that they were able to convert an entire skeleton of a living prothean biotic into element zero for augmented power in battle, or if converted properly, could make any regular Protean into a powerful biotic. Cerberus could be trying to figure out how this is done to make human biotics even more powerful than the Asari."

"Doesn't explain why they need our eezo though," Reegar butted in, "surely they could get some somewhere else that is easier to obtain."

"Perhaps Cerberus just wanted to hurt an alien faction. They are extremists," EDI reminded.

"Well that's the understatement of the decade," Shepard replied sarcastically, "they're xenophobic terrorists that need to be purged. You two, let's get out of here, this place is just as much an abomination as the Collector base and I'm burning it to the ground." The Quarians obeyed and they got out of the base as quickly as they could and jumped into the shuttle that was waiting only two meters away from the base. As they looked out the door the hideout's roof had been blown off far away from sight by some sort of explosion which made fire and black smoke emerge from the top out into the sky, and eventually Shepard walked out the front door with the base behind him set alight by fierce flames, the symbol of anger, Shepard's anger towards Cerberus and all their experiments they've ever proceeded with that crossed the line. They won't be an asset should the Reapers come, they have to die and if he couldn't do with one frigate in space, he would at least get under their skin and send a message.

"We're coming for you Illusive Man," Shepard thought to himself as he entered the shuttle, "and you're going to have to pay back everything you've ever done to the galaxy, in blood."


	6. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

There was hardly any chatter amongst the trio in the shuttle back to the Normandy. Shepard was still trying to process what he saw back at the abomination of a Cerberus hideout. How did a supposedly pro-human organization justify killing innocent humans, the humans they fought for, for research? To Shepard maybe it was better he didn't understand least of all he become the monster the Illusive Man is, but he couldn't help but ponder over this again and again after seeing that Alliance soldier ready to shoot a Cerberus scientist down in cold blood for the thresher maw on Akuze, then when he saw what Cerberus had turned Jack into. They weren't out there to help humans, they were out there for power and no one was going to convince him otherwise. His thoughts stayed strong and burned brightly even after the shuttle had gone through space and returned to the Normandy. Everyone jumped off the shuttle, even Shepard, but he wasn't really paying full attention as he walked to the elevator at the front of the cargo bay. The other two were purposely, though not rudely, trying to ignore him so he could have some breathing space to calm down. When they came out of the Normandy's shuttle they saw another shuttle opposite them of quarian design with a quarian shuttle pilot and Raan stepping out of it.

"Thank you Commander for your service to the Migrant Fleet, we couldn't have done this without your help," Raan thanked sincerely.

"It was a pleasure Admiral," Shepard replied modestly, "here is your eezo back by the way," Shepard and Reegar pointed to the large shipment of element zero strapped to his shuttle.

"Shepard has a way of pleasing crowds," Tali added in complementally.

"Now I see why you look up to him so highly Tali," Raan commented in understanding, "Reegar, your mission is done, let us go back to the fleet."

"Actually ma'am, whatever Cerberus was doing it seems it's bigger than any of us thought it was. With Shepard's permission, I'd like to stay onboard the Normandy for slightly longer," Reegar replied.

"We could sure use the help Reegar, welcome aboard," Shepard said cheerfully.

"I understand – wait, what do you mean by 'bigger than we thought?' Raan asked confused.

"Element zero was being taken to a research lab," Reegar explained, "we saw some experiments being performed on biotic humans, brutal but unusual. Something's up and someone needs to get down to it. We have a lead that can probably be followed up on this ship."

"I see, just inform us when the fleet can help in anyway, this fight does mean a lot to us, and thank you, all of you for what you are doing," Raan requested as she went back into her shuttle with her driver and they headed out back to the fleet with the Fleet's stolen element zero. Shepard seemed to have calmed down now and took out the bronze Cerberus symbol with the river behind it from his armour.

"Let's go get this looked at," Shepard ordered holding out the symbol for the quarians to see. They nodded as Shepard brought out his omni-tool to call Miranda and Jacob into the briefing room.

Shepard walked into the briefing room in the formal attire Kasumi got him with the two humans operatives on the left hand side of the room within poking distance of the large table in the centre and the two quarians on the right hand side of the room equally close to the table. Shepard took this as a sign that the quarians didn't trust the two Cerberus operatives but he ignored this as he took out the bronze symbol once again.

"You two, do either of you recognize this?" Shepard asked looking at the former Cerberus duo as he handed them the symbol. Miranda took it into her right hand and examined it closely as Jacob stared at it over her shoulder.

"I don't suppose this is-" Jacob found it hard to finish his question.

"No doubt about it," Miranda confirmed confidently as usual, "Styx Company, the river that keeps humanity running."

"Styx Company?" Tali asked.

"They're another Cerberus cell," Miranda explained, "mercenaries who kill for interesting technology, human and alien alike. They operate out in the Terminus systems where said technology is relatively easy to find and send back to the Illusive Man."

"Any technology in particular?" Shepard asked interested.

"Anything that advances the cause of humanity," Jacob answered, "but given the Illusive Man's interest in biotics biotic technology is usually what they prefer."

"They were in fact conducting tests on human biotics," Reegar informed.

"Not surprising, they were probably running tests on it first before sending it back to HQ," Miranda stated.

"Here are some pictures of what they were doing, here take a look," Shepard informed as he brought out his omni-tool to show the rest of the team pictures of the facility they destroyed. First he showed his picture of the neatly aligned body bags filled with the corpses of human biotics.

"Doesn't surprise me," Jacob commented making no effort to hide how put off he was by Cerberus's actions.

"Hold on, there's more, and this one might surprise you," Shepard warned as he flicked to his picture of the bullet ridden husks Shepard left at the base.

"Oh my god, husks?" Miranda asked shocked.

"What were they doing with husks?" Jacob asked equally shocked.

"Probably has something to do with human advancement somehow," Tali suggested.

"The fact that they weren't in cages seems to lead to questions as well," Reegar pointed out.

"Question for another day. Here is one final thing I want you both to see." Shepard flicked to his final picture, the one he found the most interesting.

"Is that… a skeleton?" Miranda asked confused.

"Yeah, a prothean skeleton made of element zero," Shepard confirmed.

"That's messed up," Jacob commented.

"EDI thinks that Cerberus may have been using this skeleton to aid in their biotics research, like they could replace some bones in the human body with an element zero substitute to enhance biotic power."

"Whatever Cerberus is up to it's something big, we can't let Cerberus keep killing humans for these experiments," Miranda declared passionately. Tali gave her a sideways look from behind her visor.

"I never thought I'd hear you say that," Tali replied in a passive aggressive manner.

"I've turned against Cerberus Tali, you should know this," Miranda rebutted crossing her arms. A third argument on the ship was the last thing Shepard wanted amongst his crew.

"Focus guys, we need a plan to take Styx Company out," Shepard declared slightly irritated.

"That's pretty extreme Commander, you sure about this?"Jacob asked concerned.

"The Illusive Man doesn't even care about humanity, not really, as shown by how he wanted to preserve the Collector base, he just wants power at any cost," Shepard explained confidently, "and he's only going to hinder our ability to fight the reapers. Any resources we can take away from them now the better. Miranda, you said they operate out in the Terminus Systems?"

"Yeah but I don't actually know of any hideouts they have. Any Styx operatives I've ever met by chance happen to be either on Omega or Illium."

"Alright, I have a plan," Shepard declared as he hooked up his omni-tool to the rest of the ship's communication network, "Normandy team, I need every combatant to assemble in the briefing room." He then switched to private comm with his turian best friend.

"That includes you Garrus, your calibrations can wait."

_- And that is the fifth installment of my first ever fanfic to post on the internet. This story isn't done yet, not by a long shot so remember to review, favourite and follow up on future chapters. Cheers!_


	7. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

The Normandy team assembled in the briefing room all looking up to Shepard like a shining leader who could ask anything of them, and stood up with their faces radiating with confidence. Shepard hid it well but he was shocked by how much his entire team trusted him for he had never commanded such loyalty in anyone and he was proud of himself for being there for his team when they needed him the most. Even Reegar respected him greatly despite not knowing him for very long. The biggest gem out of all the crew however was Tali, who, behind her mask, stared straight into his eyes. Shepard's heart became as light as a feather for the first time since the horrible mission with Reegar at the Cerberus base. He smiled back with a renewed will stronger than any tampered steel and promised himself silently that he was going to get more time with her.

"Alright crew, I'm going to need most of you on an important counter-Cerberus operation," Shepard started. The crew didn't flinch one bit; they worked for Shepard, not for a rogue Alliance black op.

"Cerberus is launching more horrid projects on human biotics. Not sure what for exactly but it isn't anything good and this could really hurt us in the future when the reapers arrive. We can't let them just do what they want so we're going to capture an agent who would know about these experiments and interrogate them." The crew kept their stalwart gaze as Shepard explained the mission trusting him to have a plan.

"The cell we're looking for is Styx Company who operate out in the Terminus," Shepard explained while bring up a galactic map of the lawless Terminus Systems, "We'll infiltrate Omega and Illium drawing as little attention as possible, track down a Styx Company agent, and either interrogate him where he stands using whatever means necessary to get him to talk or drag him back on a shuttle and interrogate him on the Normandy. I'm not sending anyone out there alone since we don't know what will happen so you'll be going in three-man teams. That way, you want draw enough attention to scare off an agent but still have reliable squad mates that can help you if things get rough."

"Shepard, how the fuck do we get to two planets with only one shuttle? The Normandy will be way too obvious to Cerberus agents," Jack criticized disrespectfully with arms folded.

"The fleet can lend shuttles sir," Reegar answered for him.

"Excellent, thank you Reegar," Shepard called out excitedly, "Alright, teams guys. Kasumi, you have the tracking skills that other thieves probably cry out for, Legion, you were able to track me down to my last known location by yourself, and Samara, Morinth was never far from you when you were tracking her so you three can team up and search Illium.

"Shepard Commander, a Geth platform may attract the attention of unwanted organics while searching for a Styx Company operative," Legion warned.

"A human and asari friend on Illium walking around with a 'synthetic assistant,' Legion," Shepard explained with his hands in the air signaling quote marks, "what's unusual about that?"

"Good idea Shep," Kasumi complimented, "let's do this guys."Legion nodded lightly in approval, and while Samara seemed to approve Shepard hoped she wouldn't attack Kasumi if she let her thieving habits got the better of her. No choice however, they were the only group that wouldn't attract too much attention on Illium.

"Alright, the second team is going to Omega," Shepard continued, "The advantage here is that a small group of 'mercenaries' roaming around would be completely normal. Garrus, you can put your C-Sec training to use, plus no one would recognize you as Archangel by now, Zaeed, you've been able to track people down as well so you should accompany him. Finally, Thane, you're probably unrivaled when it comes to finding mercs and slavers, and you're subtle, which you could easily keep the other two subtle as well. You three can easily find an agent if one is around without drawing too much attention if you blend in properly." Garrus, Zaeed and Thane nodded in agreement and gathered around. Shepard knew they were all excellent marksmen who would get along just fine.

The rest of you, Mordin, Jack, Grunt, Tali, Jacob, Miranda, Reegar and myself will act as back up, being tactically deployed should any of you six need assistance if things get rough out there," Shepard explained, "any questions before we get started?" Garrus slowly raised his arm.

"No Garrus, you can't stay behind to do calibrations," Shepard stated bluntly. Garrus slowly put his arm back down slightly embarrassed. None of the team had any questions and all just looked back up at Shepard with eyes radiating in respect, admiration and loyalty. It was obvious Shepard was going to have to make a speech right now.

"Alright team, I know this won't be easy," Shepard started sincerely trying to collect his thoughts, "this might normally seem like a waste of time since none of us have much of a lead, but I know if anyone could pull this off it's you guys for I have the galaxy's best at my side." The team gathered around even closer to Shepard, somewhat inspired by his words. He decided it was the perfect time to speak a little louder.

"Cerberus thinks they can do whatever they want, to humans, to other species, to us. They think they're invincible, entitled to everything, able to do what they want without suffering the consequences. We're going to be the ones to prove them wrong. We'll show them they're just as mortal as any one of us, that they're not entitled to everything in this galaxy and that they can't just do what they want without getting punished for it. They like torturing innocents so much to benefit themselves? We'll show them they've gone too far, that they've crossed the line for the last time and we're going to bring them to justice, to make them think twice before they decide to run another brutal experiment on someone who deserves peace in their life next time." Now everyone was hyped up for action showing it in some way, whether from flashing their biotics, flashing flames or electricity from their omni-tool or loading a gun. Everyone knew what needed to be done and more importantly why it had to be done, and they were ready to follow Shepard into dark space if that's what serving him meant.

"Alright team, let's go kick some ass," Shepard ordered inspiringly.

_Ok, this Chapter may have been somewhat boring and there has been hardly any Tali-Shepard time but rest assured that future chapters will be a lot more action packed and I'll try to add some more romantic moments somewhere in this then, reviews, favourites and followers are more than welcome._

_-Frostbrandt_


	8. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

Kasumi, Samara and Legion departed from a quarian shuttle one at a time and slowly stepped out onto the docking bay of Nos Astra. The sight of two beautiful women departing from the docking bay with figures to die for caught the attention of a few pedestrians and dock workers around them, mostly human males and asari. The sight of a synthetic assistant earned some even stranger looks from all sorts of species but they turned away from the curious group quickly enough for Kasumi's liking.

"Let's just do what we came here to do and get out," Kasumi ordered nervously.

"Afraid people will figure out what you do for a living, thief?" Samara taunted grimly.

"What? Going to attack me here and now? Just like that?" Kasumi taunted back. They were clearly getting on each other's nerves but Legion was left there confused. Why would two allies start turning against each other without reason before the mission has even started?

"Only if you try to steal something in front of me," Samara threatened.

"Why are you fighting?" Legion asked blankly, "we must cooperate to succeed."

"Yeah," Kasumi stated vaguely, "c'mon let's go." Samara nodded and the three walked past the docking bay, blending in with the group and came across the centre shopping area. The stores were still the same with practically the same stock for sale and Kasumi giggled when she walked past the same volus negotiating with the same asari sales clerk about some ship parts he wanted. Even Samara had to hold back a laugh at the fact that he must've been there for at least three months now and was still trying to get a ship. After calming down the team searched around the plaza wondering how they were going to formulate a plan that would work.

"We're not going to just know who's with Cerberus by looking at an agent," Samara bluntly stated.

"Samara, don't attack me for this but I might be able to help with that," Kasumi suggested as she walked off into the crowd. Samara had to fight back the urge to stop her. She was one of Shepard's, and because of that she was also one of her own which meant she was under her protection. Samara just put on a sweet smile and laid back trying to keep Legion from doing anything that could get her and Kasumi in trouble. Meanwhile Kasumi was out blending in with the huge crowd sneaking her hand into the pocket of every single person that came near her or that she could get close to without drawing attention and took out the contents of every pocket she could find on them. Most of the time it was just credits chits which she put back afterwards so Samara wouldn't kill her. She was also experienced with Cerberus enough to know that they were in fact willing to work with aliens so the pockets of asari, turians, salarians and any other non-human were also victims as her hand stabbed into the heart of them like an inhumanly sharp dagger and spirited the contents away from who it once belonged to. However they usually only carried credit chits as well which she always put back if she could without blowing her cover which was all the time given her skills as a master thief. After a whole half an hour of picking pockets and receiving nothing regarding Cerberus or Styx Company Kasumi came back to the group tired, beaten, ashamed and empty handed.

"Anything?" Samara asked bluntly. Kasumi knew what she meant.

"No," Kasumi stated sadly while looking down on the ground, "let's go, I need a drink after doing that." Kasumi headed straight for eternity with Samara and Legion following close behind. They passed the plaza, went by the doors, past the turian and quarian couple that always seemed to be at the same table at the same bar whenever they were here and went straight for the bar, still being tended by the same matriarch as always.

"Hey there, I'm Aethyta, asari matriarch and – wait a minute you were with that handsome human who was here a few months ago, Shepard right?" the matriarch asked.

"Yeah that's who I was with," Kasumi answered slightly more cheerful than she was a few minutes ago as she sat down resting her head on her right palm, "I'd just like a drink thanks." By now Samara and Legion were already seated.

"Sure thing," Aethyta replied as she poured a small shot glass of a strange dark blue liquor and passed it to her. She took a small sip from the glass as Aethyta turned her attention to Samara.

"What about you – damn!" Her eyes were instantly filled with an unhealthy amount of lust that no sane person would dare allow herself to feel which made Samara extremely uncomfortable, visible in her facial expression that anyone put on when they were stunned by something awkward. "You need anything honey?"

"I'm… alright, thank you," Samara stuttered out slowly.

"Let me know if you change your mind honey," Aethyta replied giving her a lustful look as she slowly turned her attention towards Legion, "what about you? No wait, actually…"

"This platform is unable to consume organic beverages," Legion replied emotionlessly.

"Yeah I can see that," Aethyta replied as she zoomed over to the other side of the bar to serve the other customers around.

"We do not understand the reasoning of self poisoning," Legion inquired.

"I'm not poisoning myself by having a drink," Kasumi justified.

"I think it's referring to you trying to get yourself drunk," Samara clarified.

"We're on a mission, I have no intention of getting drunk," Kasumi defended.

"What else do you not understand?" Samara asked curiously now talking to Legion. He sorted through his memory of questions he had about organics but there was one that caused more curiosity than any other question he had and it wouldn't be considered awkward by organics.

"The purpose of Shepard-Commander's sexual involvement with Creator Tali'Zorah." Kasumi and Samara just gave him a look that was beyond awkward. Perhaps he was wrong about thinking that it would not cause any awkwardness.

"What makes you think those two are involved?" Samara asked curiously.

"Tali told me all about it," Kasumi informed mischievously with the biggest evil grin anyone had ever seen.

"Humans and Quarians are incompatible. The two of them cannot produce a child. Logically there is little sense in them being together." Kasumi just stared adorably at Legion. Even though he was a machine that blew people's heads off with an anti-material rifle he seemed so innocent with his lack of knowledge when it came to love or dirty things organics found amusing.

"Legion," Kasumi started as she tried to collect her thoughts, "being in a relationship isn't done solely to have a child. There are a lot of factors to think about. What Shep and Tali are looking for is happiness with another person, someone to connect with, a form of consensus." Legion began to process what she was saying. He did not fully understand but he understood more now than he did a few minutes ago.

"How did you find out anyway?" Samara asked confused. She didn't think a machine would be able to detect subtle emotions.

"Body language," Legion stated outright, "they take every spare moment they have to stare at each other when they believe no other organics are looking. Also, topics discussed between the two during certain times of the day such as the future they wish to spend together had led us to a desire to learn."

"I've had many partners Legion," Samara informed, "and I've never looked at someone I loved for the first time and thought about having a child with them. I always stayed around them because they were people I wanted to be with."

"Organics desire the approval of others?" Legion asked.

"Exactly," Kasumi confirmed, "organics aren't always driven by logic. A lot of the time we just want comfort and happiness." Legion pondered over this and now he finally understood some of it. Organics aren't like synthetics, they aren't bound to logic but rather their own individual desires. They didn't just have needs but they also had wants. The relationship between Tali and Shepard wasn't out of logic but out of their feelings towards one another. But what was it that attracted them to one another in the first place?"

"What makes these two want to be around each other?" Legion asked. Samara decided to stay out of this and let Kasumi do the explaining. She did without hesitation.

"We're not like geth where we accept each other without question. It takes time to build trust amongst people. When we build up enough trust with someone only then do we consider them friends. And some friends feel something deeper. When it does, it leads to love and suddenly they're more important than you are." Kasumi seemed to be enjoying explaining this to Legion. It helped her remember the good times she had with Keiji. The whole time she talked she had been smiling deeply.

"Love takes over self-preservation?"

"No, it instead modifies it so you want to preserve the person you love," Kasumi replied happily. Legion found it fascinating that organics could experience an emotion so complex that they would value other people above themselves.

"We have finished inquiring. Shepard Commander and Creator Tali'Zorah share something fascinating, remarkable," Legion finished.

"More so that Shepard could see past a quarian's mask and see her for who she is. In 700 years I've never seen a more noble relationship," Samara agreed.

"He's a great guy," Kasumi added smiling, "he'll take good care of her." As Kasumi sipped her drink Samara looked around eternity to take in the look of the room but then she caught a strange human man in his middle ages, with no hair, green eyes and wearing a formal suit typically worn by humans on Illium and staring at the trio. He had looked away as soon as she had looked in his direction. Samara became suspicious and quickly turned to her two companions.

"We have a watcher over there," Samara whispered seriously. Kasumi carefully looked over her shoulder to see the exact same man who seemed to be trying to eyeball the three of them from the side of his gaze without looking suspicious. Not so easy to do when you're trying to eyeball a master thief.

"Just a pervert," Kasumi reassured as she finished her drink.

"No, I don't think so, that's not lust in his eyes. Let's leave and see if he follows," Samara suggested. Kasumi shrugged her shoulders and left with her as Legion followed close behind. If Samara was good at identifying criminals then events on Illium were going to get loud. The problem however was that she's a Justicar. She's very good at identifying criminals.


	9. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

_Sorry for the wait guys. I feel like these chapters aren't coming out fast enough so in the future I'm going to try and pump them out faster. No promises but I'll try._

While Kasumi, Samara and Legion continued on their mission the rest of the Normandy team relaxed in the ship's cafeteria eating a delicious meal prepared by Mess Sergeant Gardner. Nothing however was truly relaxed, in fact the team's morale showed on their faces and their faces showed that the current situation they were in was far from relaxed. Cerberus was after them seeking blood, and Styx Company was out there performing sick experiments on innocent humans again and had to be stopped. The Normandy and her crew were far from safe or relaxed and there was a silence at the table like no other. It was a dark silence, filled with death and dread. Shepard could feel the tension in the air, the stress of each individual squad mate, all wearing down on him like files on wood. He had his head down in his food but his eyes were pointed up looking across the table and at each individual squad mate. Miranda, Jacob and Mordin were all pretty agitated, just eating their meal like zombies just trying to keep their minds off things. Reegar himself was also being very reserved but given that he hadn't gone on the suicide mission with the rest of the team he was most likely just shy or nervous around an originally Cerberus aligned group. Grunt just chomped through his plates of food ferociously as if he hadn't eaten in days without a care in the world but that was typical of a krogan. Jack wasn't present at the table, she wasn't anywhere to be seen so Shepard just assumed she stayed behind down in her hidey-hole as usual. Whether she actually gave a damn about anything that was happening was unknown. After checking on everyone else he subtly looked towards his left, at Tali, who was sitting right beside him, and saw that she was just in bad a state as everyone else. Her expression was hidden behind her mask, but the way her fingers studded around her nutrient paste, how they were constantly tangling up with each other. It pained him to see her like that, worried and uncertain about the future, likely the fleet's future, but more likely her future with Shepard. He wasn't going to let anyone dwell on the negatives, least of all the love of his life, and if a speech seemed inappropriate right now the least he could do was break the silence.

"So Rupert, nice grub," Shepard complimented enthusiastically.

"Ah what? Oh right thanks Shepard," Gardner accepted hastily, being put off by the sudden break in silence. The rest of the squad looked up in surprise almost instantly as if a bomb had just gone off. _Maker these people were in a trance_, Shepard thought.

"Seriously guys you all look like somebody just died, something the matter?" Shepard asked playfully. Jacob and Reegar giggled once they realized just how serious they had been. They were on standby for a possibly dangerous mission but that didn't mean they couldn't enjoy themselves a little bit before having to throw themselves into the heat of danger.

"Just having my mind occupied with things you know?" Jacob commented.

"Sorry Commander, just waiting things out," Reegar clarified.

"Shepard, we have a job to do," Miranda lectured, "we should be staying focused.

"Yes, focused, but that doesn't mean we have to be so… lifeless right now does it?" Shepard asked. Miranda giggled at the dangerously casual remark but it made perfect sense to her. She wasn't Cerberus's second in command anymore; she should lighten up.

"Not many years left, still much to do," Mordin replied hastily, words charging out of his mouth like bullets from a revenant as he left the table taking his empty plate to the sink, "so many experiments, better get started." With his final word he walked off out of sight of everyone else present and took the elevator straight towards his lab in the CIC. Everyone was stunned and confused at his sudden display, Reegar especially so, but the rest of the team recovered quickly having been used to his awkwardness and started chatting amongst themselves, except for Grunt who was still busy pigging out. Even Reegar started socializing more ever since he first stepped aboard the Normandy. Shepard smiled to himself as he listened to everyone's conversations on various topics, weapons, history, technology, art, things that had nothing to do with Cerberus or the Reapers and he even joined in happily. He was even more happy to see Tali being happier all of a sudden like everyone else as she started joining in conversations with the crew but when she looked at Shepard she stopped talking and stared into his eyes for moments before she simply rested her head on his shoulder. Comforted, Shepard wrapped an arm around Tali's shoulder and the two of them continued to stare into each other's eyes longingly with the palms of their hands touching, their fingers interlocked.

"Tali," Shepard whispered quietly.

"Yes Shepard," she replied sweetly.

"I love you." Tali tilted her head up further still, albeit slowly. He couldn't see through her mask but he knew she was stunned, wide-eyed, her mouth gaping open in a surprised smile. She held his arm tightly in affection.

"I love you too," Tali stammered out as the two held onto each other as the rest of the team talked not taking any notice.

Having restored the whole team's morale, chatting up his crew, and displaying his affection to Tali, he walked over to the sink handing his empty plate to Gardner. He proceeded to the elevator, thinking of attending his duties as the ship's captain but just before he could call the elevator he got bear hugged from behind. Surprised he took a quick glance at the arms around his stomach to see two three-fingered hands covered in a black and purple suit gripping onto him tightly, and he let out a happy sigh when he realized who it was.

"Need something Tali?" Shepard whispered smiling. Tali leaned in closer to his right ear sending goose bumps all throughout Shepard's skin.

"Shepard… I," Tali's voice trailed off distantly, having all of a sudden lost her words as she looked up at her lover. Shepard shivered at her current resolve not knowing what was bothering her.

"Something wrong Tali?" Shepard asked confused as he turned around to hold her by her hips.

"No, not that, I just," Tali kept stammering over her words but in the end she got her tongue together and finally said what she wanted to say, "I don't really want to be alone right now, do have a free moment?" Shepard gave her a sweet reassuring smile and held her tighter and brought her closer till she was digging her visor into his chest.

"Anything for you Tali," he whispered into her ear, "come up with me." Tali looked up, slid the back of her right hand across his right cheek, and let go of him so she could hold his hand as they went up to the captain's cabin together.

_And that's chapter 8. Next time we'll look at Kasumi, Samara and Legion's mission on Illium and see how they're going. If you like this story so far review, favourite and follow. Cheers!_

_-Frostbrandt_


	10. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

Kasumi, Samara and Legion walked through the alley ways of Nos Astra trying to weave and duck through tight gaps, conscious of a lone follower somewhere whose gaze was upon them. They went pass the alleys and into the large crowds of shopping plazas but the stalker was always close behind no matter where they went. When the team was in the very centre of the large crowd a gunshot was fired and everyone in the area cowered down with their heads in their arms panicking. The Normandy trio ducked down as well but they were able to stay calm. Kasumi stared the shooter in the eye, the same creepy stalker who had been following her and her squad who was now holding a carnifex up in the air with his left hand. He snapped his fingers with his free hand and several men clad in the same Cerberus arms and armour used by the operatives Shepard, Tali and Reegar had fought on Elohi. The men and women swarmed in, avengers at the ready shooting any asari that poked their head up but leaving the humans alive, typical of the pro human organization. Two of the Cerberus ops stood above the trio while the stalker in the lawsuit came up behind the two of them holding a data pad and scanning through the files he possessed.

"Are these the two?" The operative on his right asked. He continued to scan through his data pad for five seconds before he put it away and nodded his head.

"Kasumi Goto, master thief, and Justicar Samara. It's them." The stalker replied approvingly.

"What about the synthetic?" The operative to his left asked. The stalker eyed Legion curiously, who then tilted his head at the organic in response before the stalker was able to recapture his line of thought.

"That's the geth platform Shepard found. Pity he didn't hand it over," the stalker replied maliciously. Capture them, the Illusive Man wants to deal with them himself.

"Hoorah!" another op called out as he and some other ops came with him holding electric cuffs in their hands ready to restrain the trio, "another victory for Styx Company!"

"I knew it," Kasumi stated snidely, earning a hard pistol whip to her upper back from a Styx Mercenary behind her. Samara sprung up trying to hit her captors with a reave field but she was kicked back by a mercenary and then zapped by a strange orange glow from her omni-tool.

"Damping tech," the female merc called out arrogantly, "that's your biotics gone for a while."

"You will not go unpunished for what you've done," Samara threatened quietly, keeping her calm composure.

"We'll see about that, alien bitch," the stalker replied uninterested, "take them away." The mercenaries forced the squad to their feet and began hauling them away from the plaza to wherever Styx Company had in mind for the team. Only minutes passed, but minutes was all Kasumi needed to formulate a plan of escape, both for her and her squad mates. Discreetly, she began to tweak the cuffs binding her wrists, sometimes getting shocked by the electricity but she was tough enough to not let anyone see the irritation in her face. When she looked up she saw the ship she and her squad were being hauled into and it was only a few seconds away, meaning it was only going to be a few seconds before all was lost. Kasumi, however, was able to undo her shackles a few paces away from the port, and when she did she spread her wrists apart to fling them into the faces of the jailors next to her, turned around at light speed to roundhouse kick another Styx mercenary in the right cheek, and chucked a flashbang into the air, blinding everyone around her except for herself as she covered her eyes, and quickly got her squad away from the heart of the blinded enemy formation and behind a wall up a few steps away a good distance away from them. By the time the mercs were able to focus on their surroundings again Kasumi had taken two of them out with her beloved locust. The remaining mercs all got behind walls, columns, public furniture, and whatever else they could hide behind to avoid her locust fire while reinforcements rushed out of the Styx Company ship before it flew off somewhere into the distance. The mercenaries fired at Kasumi's position as she lowered her head behind cover pinned down by the heavy suppressing fire of the mercs, which disorientated her mind, wrecking it with instability, and she was unable to make any clear decisions and instead just hesitated behind her thick chest high wall. Luckily, Samara regained her concentration just in time from Kasumi's flashbang and skidded into cover right next to her thief companion to pull three of the mercs into the air with her biotics, letting them drift up into the air helplessly before she flared her biotics up once again to throw them off over the high edge and down to the city below Nos Astra with unrelenting force. Legion had also recovered and had sniped his fair share of humans through walls and cover with his powerful widow, sometimes even taking out two or three adversaries with only one bullet. As legion lined up his next shot a hostile bullet impacted on where his right shoulder was, which would've blown his arm off had it not been for his shields, but the impact of the shot was enough to knock him down onto his back.

"Legion," Samara called out, concerned but calm."

"This platform has sustained no damage," Legion replied blankly as he got back up and pressed himself up against the chest high wall. Kasumi peeped out of cover to see that there were only about eight men left on the ground and none of them had been using anything more powerful than an avenger, but on a five storey building parallel to the enemy, a fair distance away, there was a sniper team on the very top with a massive precision rifle mounted on the edge on some sort of heavy utility set-up manned by three men.

"Guys, there are snipers on top of this building here," Kasumi relayed to her team beside her as she pointed to a building on her map on her omni-tool HUD.

"There is a high statistical probability of death should we try and engage them in a frontal approach," Legion informed.

"Kasumi, try a flanking approach, we'll cover you," Samara ordered. Kasumi did as she was told, sticking to the shadows to remain unseen from the snipers. Samara rose up slightly to use reave on the ground team in front of her but only caught one merc as the rest had retreated further back away from the plaza and into the main city to avoid taking too much fire now that their numbers had been halved. Samara could feel when the next shot was about to be fired, and she threw up a defensive field just in time to deflect a shot which would've gone right through her barriers and her rib cage otherwise. Legion tried sending a combat drone to harass the snipers to keep them off Samara while she engaged the grunts on the ground but the snipers were prepared for the drone and one of them overloaded the drone to malfunction before it was able to shock anyone. The shooter of the team was lining up his next shot with his mounted widow, who planned to take out Samara and damage Legion in one bullet, but when he pulled the trigger the gun wouldn't fire. He made sure he had ejected a thermal clip, but still the gun wouldn't fire. By the time he realized that the magazine in the gun was removed a mysterious gloved hand had pulled him over the edge and he fell down screaming as he hit the ground with a loud sickly crack. Before his team was able to react Kasumi somersaulted up from the ledge she hung onto and landed on the roof, right beside the enemy with perfect balance, surprising any logical sense out of her foes. One of the snipers tried to strike her across the face but she raised her forearm up to parry the blow, and then swiftly ducked and danced around behind him, striking him once behind his knee with her elbow and again in the mid back with her fist. As he was stunned she grabbed him around his neck using him as a meat shield as the other sniper unloaded 12 shots into his own comrade with his predator. As he tried to eject a thermal clip Kasumi took out her own locust and unloaded bullet after bullet at him, ejecting a thermal clip of her own only after her foe lay dead. Kasumi took long breath, having never realized how skilled she was in a fight, but her moment of triumph had to be cut short as there was still a fight raging back on the ground. She gazed into the distance to see Styx Company's number of men were dwindling and being pushed back further but still led by their commander as Samara and Legion pushed forward using biotics and tech attacks alike to get an advantage. Kasumi knew that her friends might need her help once again so she jumped and climbed from building to building, making sure she remained unseen by Styx Company.

As she ran across on a building a bullet from nowhere hit her shields, and surprised, she quickly skidded behind a durable looking fan for cover. As she took a glimpse around the corner a shuttle was flying above her, rolling with blood pack colours. Kasumi grunted in frustration, and thought that Styx Company must've kept Blood Pack on the payroll just in case something like this happened. The shuttle door opened and two krogan jumped down armed with scimitar shotguns and they started blasting away at Kasumi but the fan in her way left her unharmed. Pressured by the approaching krogan, Kasumi darted away and jumped to another building directly next to her and ran up further than the krogan could cover quickly. She jumped behind a steel crate which happened to be lying around and pulled out her predator as the krogan came charging. As they jumped down to the roof she was now occupying, Kasumi grinned to herself maliciously as one krogan, who was just about to charge turned sharply to his left as a rotating disc popped up from the ground and blew up in a bright orange explosion in his face which set his armour on fire. Shocked, he ran around panicking until he bumped his foot on a ledge, which caused him to fall forward off the roof, out of sight and out of the game. The other krogan went charging in as he kept his calm, so to speak, but when he darted around Kasumi's cover she was no longer there. As he turned around Kasumi materialized into the real world right in front of him and stabbed a knife right into the gap of his helmet, pushing him into the wall as she did, and, using all her might, she pried his helmet right off his head and pointed her locust right in his unprotected face. The krogan was trembling in fear, his hands in the way of his face as he cowered, his eyes closed and turning his head way from the thief.

"Please… don't!" the krogan begged, not knowing what else to say. Kasumi was not unmerciful, but Shepard was never hesitant to finish off slavers and mercenaries when he had the chance, because he believed they deserved it. Kasumi, not seeing any reason to spare her captive, followed Shepard's example of dealing with criminals and let a bullet fly into his eye and he dropped down dead with a huge thud. She wiped the sweat off her forehead in relief but once again her sense of victory was cut off as her omni-tool started beeping with a message from Samara and Legion.

"Kasumi," Samara greeted under dire circumstances, "Styx Company has the Blood Pack on their side, we need you here immediately."

"Priority target heavily protected," Legion informed, "we require assistance to apprehend him."

"Just hang on I'm coming," Kasumi declared as she sped from roof to roof, leapt from building to building till she caught up with her team back on the ground, though she remained on the roof tops to flank the enemy, raining fire down with her locust, whose bullets either bounced off the krogan or were out regenerated by vorcha, but killed all the remaining Styx Company ops. The Styx Company Commander fired two shots at Kasumi as he fled but she was able to dodge the incoming bullets. Samara reaved apart the heavy armour of the krogan who were clad together tightly, Legion sniped most with his widow, and Kasumi finished off the rest. The remaining vorcha did their best to put up a fight to their deaths but Kasumi, noticing a Pyro amongst them, overloaded his tanks with her omni-tool and it exploded, incinerating all but two of the vorcha, one who was sniped by Legion and the other was biotically flung into a wall by Samara and his neck was snapped on impact. Kasumi jumped down and pointed in the direction the target had run for her team to see.

"This way, hurry!" she shouted as she sprinted after him, with Samara and Legion not very far behind. The Commander sprinted away from the Normandy team as fast as he could, looking back to see Samara and Legion chasing him relentlessly but Kasumi had disappeared. Whatever the thief had planned he believed he would be ready for it, despite his operatives and hired muscle being dead. He sped round a corner, hoping to lose his pursuers amongst the crowd that had suddenly appeared but as he turned Kasumi had materialized right in front of him and attempted to clothesline him but he rolled forward avoiding the blow. Kasumi retaliated by karate chopping him in the back of the head as he tried to run which disorientated him long enough for her to step in front of him to block off his path. He turned around to escape only to see Samara flaring up blocking his new intended path. To his right was a building, so he turned to his left only to see Legion facing him, supposedly idle, but that only seemed so because he was an AI. Desperate, he took a swing at Kasumi but she ducked and flipped him on his arse, who then, along with her team, all pointed their heavy pistols directly at him.

"Shit, what do you want?' the Commander asked sarcastically.

"Information," Legion replied.

"Specifics?" the Commander criticized as if Legion had just asked a stupid question.

"It's somewhat strange that Cerberus would try and steal eezo from the Migrant Fleet isn't it?" Kasumi asked playfully, "what do you want this time?"

"I not telling you squat, traitor," the Commander protested as he swallowed. Samara biotically threw the team's captive into a wall then clutched at his collar, holding him up as his limbs dangled helplessly in the air.

"Styx's Company's plans, your life hangs on the answer," Samara threatened. However the man was unable to respond, no matter how many times Samara struck him, he made no noise, and his limbs and head would just flop around. Legion took a medical scan with his omni-tool to see what was wrong.

"Target is eliminated. There are traces of cyanide in his body," Legion informed. Samara dropped the human's dead body. There were many bystanders watching the trio in shock because it looked like the team had killed him, but the police who were watching, all Asari, recognized Samara as a Justicar and turned a blind eye.

"Didn't Mordin say something about this?" Kasumi asked, already knowing the answer.

"We'll warn Garrus and his team," Samara suggested, "to make they find a work around." Kasumi was trying to hack the dead Commander's omni-tool but seconds within the process it malfunctioned and shattered into bits on the ground, and Kasumi was no longer able to retrieve any information from its memory banks; it was destroyed.

"Good idea," Kasumi replied.

_-And that is the next chapter finally out. Sorry for the wait guys, especially sense I'm still having trouble getting into the minds of some characters during certain situations. More to come, so review, favourite and follow for more. Cheers!_

_-Frostbrandt_


	11. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_

"Tali!" Gabby shouted in the engineering room, "You doing ok in there?"

"I'm fine!" Tali replied, shouting back to make sure Gabby could hear. She continued to crawl the ducts in the engineering room looking for the source of the Normandy's recent power failure, which was odd and happened at the most inconvenient of times, with the whole mission Kasumi and Garrus's teams were on. Power had to be restored in order to resume communication and it'd be nice if EDI were around just in case the Normandy was ambushed by mercenaries or slavers. Tali crawled around on all fours, scanning parts and equipment with her omni-tool, crawling around again and then doing more scanning. It was a very annoying job even a quarian would hate and Tali was no exception, but she wanted to save the engineers trouble and decided to go in herself. Besides, she was much more familiar with the Normandy than the rest of the team so she knew exactly what she was doing, where's Gabby or Ken may accidently muck something up. After valiantly enduring much crawling, head bumping, elbow banging and lower back pain Tali came across the port where she could affect the ship's power source, which was a small box designed to be affected by an engineer's omni-tool. She opened the box up to examine all the digital displays held within, each one representing a different part of the Normandy's engineering or electrical system. Slowly and carefully she wirelessly connected her omni-tool to the box and began clicking buttons and shifting wheels on her omni-tool, swirling things around in a complicated fashion. After five 10 minutes of tinkering with the ship's electricity the power finally came back on, the engines were restarted, and the Normandy was back in the business of pissing Cerberus off.

"Ok, power's back on, we should be good to go," Tali radioed back to her fellow human engineers.

"Excellent," Ken replied all pumped up and rubbing his fists. Gabby went straight back to work but Ken continued to stare at Tali manically which she didn't realize until she turned to her right for a moment to see her accomplice smiling like an idiot.

"Need something Ken?" Tali asked, wondering what was up with him.

"So… Shepard…" he replied playfully.

"What about him?" Tali asked still typing away at her computer. She began typing faster than usual, depending much more on the backspace button now and sweating underneath her enviro-suit. She knew exactly where this conversation was going.

"How did you two go?" Ken asked bluntly. Tali blushed as red as an apple, but luckily her face was hidden under her mask.

"Kenneth!" Gabby threatened menacingly, but Ken was going to ignore this time. His curiosity for what quarians looked like was getting the better of him.

"I… don't know what you're talking about," Tali replied stuttering, words rushing out her lips and light speed. She knew exactly what he was talking about but she wanted to do nothing more than avoid the question.

"Come now my dear girl, what is it like for a quarian lady to sleep with a human man? Did you get it on video?" Ken asked teasingly with a stupid grin on his face. Gabby decided his perverted habits had gone too far again and used all her strength to gut him with her fist, which made him give off a big yelp.

"Can it Kenneth, we have work to do," Gabby lectured angrily. Ken could only grunt as he tried getting back up to his feet, his hand resting on his hip as he tried sucking the pain in.

"Damn it girl, what the hell?" Kenneth complained. Gabby didn't bother to even look at him. Instead she just kept on typing away at her keyboard doing her engineering work and Kenneth went on to do the same. Tali breathed a sigh of relief, letting her take the moment in for a while, and then punched in a code on her omni-tool to signal Kasumi back on Illium.

"Kasumi, you there?" she asked calmly.

"Tali?" Kasumi asked out of surprise, "we've been trying to contact the Normandy for ages."

"There was a power cut but we're back online. How is everything?"

"We found an operative but…" Kasumi really didn't want to tell her friend the bad news.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Creator Tali'Zorah," Legion interrupted, "target is dead. He consumed cyanide to escape capture."

"Well that's a shame, we need to warn Garrus's team to make sure they know about that."

"Hmm yes," Mordin examined from behind, "cyanide capsules hidden in molars, problematic, wish crew would remember."

"Wha – Mordin, when did you - " Tali stuttered out shocked to see Mordin appear from nowhere.

"Tali, you requested some tests taken regarding your immune system. I have them," Mordin informed, mouth moving quicker than a hamster on coffee. Both the human engineers glanced at the aliens with curiosity, even Gabby, she was just better at hiding it then Ken.

"Oh, um, sure Mordin, let's look at, ah, everything," Tali replied nervously as the two of them went to Zaeed's quarters for privacy. Once in Mordin took in another deep breath before speaking.

"Have taken the tests Tali, your immune system seems to have strengthened since intercourse with Shepard. Still, recommend taking these immuno-boosters in the future, less severe allergic reaction."

"Oh, thank you," Tali replied as she took the immuno-boosters, "anything else?"

"In near future, extra herbal supplements recommended. Use caution with more artificial medicine, higher doses can be harmful, immuno-boosters should be enough. Also, obvious Shepard didn't self sterilize properly last time, give him this for future," Mordin recommended professionally as he handed Tali a vial of something strange.

"Thank you Mordin, Shepard and I will do things better next time," Tali thanked.

"Good, now if you'll excuse me Tali, I still need to work on cure for kepral's syndrome, Shepard's personal request, as even agreed to fund whatever is necessary, can't let him down." Mordin paced out of the room and back to his station in the lab, leaving Tali to brush her fingers over her new medicine. As she thought about what she was going to do with them her omni-tool beeped and she, put her supplements away to answer the message. It was from Shepard.

"Hey beautiful! " Tali let off a grin like no other. Even in the middle of an important mission he still made time for her. In her mind she even began questioning whether he really was an Alliance N7, because they were meant to be far more disciplined.

"Hey handsome," she typed back.

_Keelah I need to lay off the breaks and actually start writing something. Anyway here is chapter 10 of my first ever fanfic. Enjoy!_

_-Frostbrandt_


	12. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

Garrus, Thane and Zaeed all clustered around, sitting on a table at Afterlife, looking through all the clues the three of them had gathered over the past five days, which was done by looking through several data pads and exchanging notes made via omni-tool. It was fortunate that everyone on Omega practically minded their own business most of the time because the three of them were extremely tense and focused scurrying around their information, so much so that one any planet, the only place they wouldn't attract attention was a library.

"This is fucking pointless!" Zaeed exclaimed frustrated over the lack of information the three of them had gathered.

"We need to be patient for this kind of work Zaeed," Thane replied monotonously as he scrolled through a data pad in his hand.

"Patience my ass!" Zaeed replied loudly, "what could be more important than Zaeed Massani not being bested by fucking reconnaissance!" Garrus let out a calm sigh as a reaction to Zaeed's energetic outburst, and turned off his omni-tool.

"Maybe we should take a brake guys," Garrus suggested with his mandibles slightly twitchy.

"Finally tired of doing the same thing over and over again ay Garrus?" Zaeed asked snidely, but making sure Garrus knew it was just one hardened veteran playing around with another.

"Is that meant to mean something Zaeed?" Garrus asked chuckling but didn't stay around to get a reply from the mercenary, "wait here, I'll get some drinks." As Garrus went to the bar which was only a few steps away from the table the team was at Thane began glancing across the lounge, his eyes wriggling around quickly in their sockets as he began to memorize the area and plan escape routes should a gun fight break out until he had several within a moment.

"Zaeed," Thane started informatively, "you said places like this are just slaughterhouses dressed as nightclubs a while back didn't you?"

"That's right," Zaeed replied, "but you've been doing your job long enough to know this shouldn't you?"

"Correct, which is why I've selected 15 effective escape routes should a gunfight break out." Zaeed just began to chuckle slightly until Garrus returned a moment later with three drinks in his arms, two purple beverages which he passed to his two new found friends and a blue one for himself which he kept firmly in his hand as he took a seat at the table once more.

"You know Thane, if any scumbag mercs or slavers storm this place threatening to kill people, I'll shoot them right between the eyes," Garrus replied darkly. Zaeed didn't say anything, but Thane examined the merc's widened eyes and slightly curved lip formation, and decided that he most likely approved. Thane understood Garrus's confidence, knowing his past as Archangel, but going out of your own way to create noise and death was tremendously less subtle than the master assassin was comfortable with.

"We should be avoiding attention Garrus, not looking for it." Garrus took a deep breath in, eyes focusing more on him, but ultimately let go of his tension.

"I suppose you're right," Garrus replied calmly and quietly as he took a seat. Meanwhile Zaeed just crossed his eyes from Garrus to Thane, then back again repeatedly without moving his neck.

"Well this is fucking awkward," he exclaimed loudly out of the blue, "and I kill shit for a living."

"If we're going to move to less violent topics there is one thing I want to discuss with you all," Garrus started, somewhat stuttering and hesitant in his tone.

"Oh shit, where's this going?" Zaeed asked tiredly, as if he wanted to avoid what was going down.

"Well, Shepard and Tali seem happy, I was wondering if any of you had comments on that?" Garrus asked in his high pitched (for a turian) happy tone as he took a sip from his drink. In an instant Thane's eyes brightened and a random light from out of nowhere lit his face up as he raised his head almost instantly.

"His stance relaxes, arms wrap around her hips, looks her straight in the eyes. She raises her head, doing the same, arms around his shoulders. They whisper, make promises of love, a life, a homeworld. He picks her up, sweeps her off her feet, and they are gone." Zaeed's eyes widened at the strange revelation, having very little experience with dealing with drell in his past, but Garrus had somewhat of an idea having been talking with him quite a lot on the Normandy.

"Reliving another memory?" Garrus asked politely. It seemed strange to him, but Garrus wasn't one to insult his friends.

"I remember seeing Shepard and Tali together this one time. They are happy. That is fortunate, there is much darkness in this galaxy. I am relieved to see some brightness in it before I perish." Garrus chuckled at seeing Thane's soft side, though he knew he shouldn't be surprised. Thane was in fact a protector first and assassin second who was giving his best to make the galaxy a better place with the short amount of time he had left.

"Shepard has had to deal with a lot in his life. The gangs on Earth, the slavers on Elysium, hell when chasing down Saren, and no doubt Tali hasn't had it easy with the Fleet. I'm glad something's gone right for them for once," Garrus declared proudly as he rested his drink on the table. Zaeed had been swirling his drink around, smiling to himself at the discussion, realizing that Shepard and Tali had reminded him of himself and Jessie, his one true, pure love, only both participants were living, animated people. He knew he had to pay some sort of tribute to the happy couple, however unusual and awkward it would be to him. He held up his glass with one hand as he put on a smile for the rest of the team.

"To Shepard and Tali, to something going right for a fucking change!" The other two held the glasses up and a quiet, high pitched noise of clashing glass was heard around the table, temporary as it was as the loud music of Afterlife killed it.

"Agreed," Thane replied.

"Just like old times," Garrus replied.

_-Thanks for reading my latest chapter. Only a few more to go and this story will be brought to a close. I already have a few ideas for a few my stories after this one is complete, maybe some one shots of ShepardxTali to place within this story as well separated by an epilogue, but my next full story will probably be about dragon age. I'm also starting to post updates on my profile when a new chapter is coming out soon or if I find a good fanfic on this website and I get permission to advertise it. Until next time, farewell!_

_-Frostbrandt_

_PS: Tell me in the reviews if some of the characters do or don't feel out of character, I've tried but some dialogue doesn't feel right sometimes you know, no matter what I do._


	13. Chapter 12

_**Chapter 12**_

_-And here is my next installment at long last, sorry for the wait guys. I wish I could chuck these chapters out faster but I'm getting pretty busy with school work and everything and I refuse to rush something out for the sake of uploading. I'm not abandoning this guys, not in a million years. I'll also stop posting updates on my profile since it's a pretty stupid idea so if I have any new updates from now on I'm updating the lastest chapter. Cheers guys for reading! :)_

_-Frostbrandt _

Throughout the next few days Garrus and his team had begun to work more hastily on their work to apprehend a Styx Company agent. Garrus knew there was one on the piss hole of a station people called Omega, he could feel it in his gut just like when he was investigating Saren. Most of the team's time was spent gathering whatever information they could but since Garrus was the only tech expert there most of the computer work was left to him while Thane and Zaeed just acted as backup in case there was a task they could accomplish for him. Eventually Garrus came across a piece of information that the Shadow Broker herself would have been willing to pay for inside an old a seemingly abandoned station room; an entire conversation between someone within Styx Company and some form of higher agent.

"How is the research?" asked an anonymous voice, though Garrus remembered the voice from when he accompanied Shepard to destroy the human reaper. He knew it was the Illusive Man.

"Splendid, the biotics are showing remarkable power, but we need more funding," a mysterious voice replied grimly. Neither Garrus of his team were able to identify this person using his voice alone.

"Granted, we need those upgrades. Omega should be more than efficient for now," the Illusive Man replied triumphantly. The team heard exactly what they needed to hear.

"How old is this recording?" Thane asked.

"A day old," Garrus replied, "and all I had to do was recalibrate a few electronics."

"For fuck's sake Garrus, even off the damn ship," Zaeed complained.

"At least now we know Styx Company has a presence on Omega," Garrus informed, "I'm going to try and dig something else up." He scrounged through audio file after audio file but no matter how hard or how long he searched there seemed to be nothing else about Styx Company he could listen in on. He closed his omni-tool expecting to be able to get up after his putting his back through torture kneeling down as he did but suddenly he felt the barrel of a gun right against the back of his head just under his fringe.

"Hold it right there alien scum," a rough human voice bellowed calmly from behind. Garrus was shocked to hear the voice and who was holding the gun to his head; Zaeed Massani.

"Hold it right there turian," the mercenary calmly demanded. Thane tried to round house kick Zaeed's pistol out of his hand but he ducked and elbowed him in the head with full force. Thane was tough, but even he couldn't overcome the head trauma that Kepral's Syndrome gave him and that blow to the head was all that was needed to leave him dazed on the ground.

"You're a clever son of a bitch Garrus, I knew that once you came to Omega Styx Company would be in for a blast," Zaeed complimented maliciously.

"And here I was thinking I finally met a trustworthy merc," Garrus replied sarcastically, seemingly unthreatened by a gun to the back of his head, and completely unsurprised that Zaeed had been a member of Cerberus the entire time.

"Shut it alien," Zaeed commanded as he grabbed Garrus's head fringe with his empty hand and pulled his head back to expose his throat, "Styx Company is the vanguard of Cerberus, and Cerberus is the future of humanity, we will rise to the very top of the bloody galaxy… and no traitorous symbol of our race or his turian dog is going to stop us!" Garrus was used to being put down, but his fury was reaching new levels from being betrayed once more, and he had the nerve of insulting Shepard. Garrus killed Sidonis, executed him like the traitor he was, and he had made up his mind that Zaeed was going to suffer the same sudden end. Zaeed was going to die. In one quick movement Garrus spun around on his ankle and knocked Zaeed's pistol out with his arm and then proceeded to punch him in the scar with his other hand but he deflected the blow and the two began trading an endless series of strikes and parries. Eventually Garrus nailed Zaeed in the cheek hard enough to send him spinning 180 degrees just after Thane had recovered, who then roundhouse kicked him back in the other direction and he landed on the ground face first. He tried to get up slowly but Garrus pressed him down with his foot to stop him, relishing in Zaeed's frustrated grunt at his shoulder being smashed into the cold ground of the space station.

"I trusted you Zaeed," Garrus declared disgusted as he reached for his heavy pistol, "but you're going down." Just as he aimed his gun at the traitor's head a bullet crashed through the window and destroyed his kinetic barrier in a single blow. Garrus looked up in the direction where the bullet came from with widened eyes and a mouth gaping open for a split second before running behind the wall next to the window.

"Where did that window come from?" Garrus asked sarcastically, "when did Omega start having windows!?" As he was distracted Zaeed fled from the room right passed Thane who would have been able to assassinate him in that instance if it weren't for his lingering dizziness from having been struck in the head before. He quickly snapped behind to the other side of the window, opposite of Garrus, making sure none of his body was revealed through the window and withdrew his viper from his left shoulder plate. Garrus drew his trusty mantis while carefully sticking his pistol out with his off hand. As expected, it was shot out of his hand and left on the ground in little shards.

"Shepard, you there!?" Garrus shouted into his omni-tool. There was a bit of a ruffling sound accompanied by a "where's my visor" before he got the response he desperately needed.

"Garrus? What's wrong?" Shepard asked calmly.

"We're getting sniped on Omega! Zaeed turned on us!" He shouted into his omni-tool as he quick-scoped Styx Company sniper that was off in a distant skyscraper.

"Zaeed betrayed you?" Shepard asked shocked. There was no way to hide the surprise in his voice.

"Just get over here quickly, Thane and I probably won't hold out on our own for much longer," he responded with a steady voice. He glanced at Thane for a brief moment to see him fire off two shots into the distance, both of which nailed two shock troops charging in attempting to crash through the window Garrus swore wasn't supposed to be there. "Scratch that we can hold out for quite a while but double time it anyway!"

"The Normandy's coming Garrus, just hang in there and score some headshots," Shepard ordered, and he cut the signal. Garrus smiled to himself in his cover and tightened his grip of his mantis. Shepard would make it. He'd land, rip the enemy up with his biotics and save him from the jaws of death like he did every time they fought together.


End file.
